The climb out of Seiad Valley is known as being one of the most heinous on the PCT, and rightly so. Starting at 1300 feet on the Klamath River, it climbs steep, often shadeless ridges up to 6000 feet before leveling off. Much of the trail here is overgrown and easily lost. Nearly all of it is covered in deep fine dust. And today it was smoky. Not as smoky as yesterday, but still plenty smoky.
Another notable feature are the dead zones. Some ridges are composed of orange-brown mineral, and very little grows on them. I presume some metal is here in abundance that plants find hard to detoxify.
In a dead zone
All in all, not a fun hiking experience. But a necessary one. If you are going to walk from Mexico to Canada, not every step will be easy or cheery or fun. This is what’s here, so this is what has to be walked.
Forests began to return by the end of the day. I made camp at the oddly-named Cook and Green Pass. There is a road up here, and some hikers chose to do the roadwalk rather than take the longer and steeper and gnarlier trail. I can’t blame them, but I am not sorry I walked the trail.
Instead I am glad that there is a lovely spring nearby, one that provides plenty of fresh cold water. The wind has also come up out of the west. It is strong enough and cool enough that I put up my tent, and I hope that I will wake to blue skies in the morning.